1. On my most recent trip to Naples (May 2011), the trash problem was much, much worse than on my previous trips a few years earlier. There are garbage pile-ups even in the decent parts of the city.

2. As time has passed, I've grown less and less enamored with the Neapolitan bespoke experience. I've been burned and don't feel like venturing out much more. I will stick with Rubinacci because they have consistently done right by me, but that's it. The romance is great, but those of us who need some degree of reasonable reliability and responsivness from our tailors should look elsewhere. No, I don't consider it an option to hunt out obscure but supposedly amazing tailors in Naples, then use Google translator to communicate with them from the States, pay by bank transfer, then wait 6 weeks to 18 months for an order that will invariably be wrong, yet be left with no recourse. Some of us may recall, Ambrosi used to be a somewhat obscure trousermaker with a near mystical reputation, and yet here we are.

3. All that said, I will surely return to Naples again, and probably sooner rather than later. I may not want to do much business with its local craftsmen anymore, but even amidst the grit and garbage, the city is a magical place to be--for the food, for the people, for the intangible sensation of deja vu and crumbling grandeur that haunts every street. So long as Da Dora stays Da Dora, I will be back to Naples.

2. As time has passed, I've grown less and less enamored with the Neapolitan bespoke experience. I've been burned and don't feel like venturing out much more. I will stick with Rubinacci because they have consistently done right by me, but that's it. The romance is great, but those of us who need some degree of reasonable reliability and responsivness from our tailors should look elsewhere. No, I don't consider it an option to hunt out obscure but supposedly amazing tailors in Naples, then use Google translator to communicate with them from the States, pay by bank transfer, then wait 6 weeks to 18 months for something I ordered that will invariably be wrong, yet be left with no recourse. Some of us may recall, Ambrosi used to be a somewhat obscure trousermaker with a near mystical reputation, and yet here we are.

Sure, confidence is appealing. I give you that. A little audacity is often a good thing. But confidence can be misplaced as well. The secret to really rocking something, IMO, is knowing when and where to draw the line. Confusing confidence with a license to wear anything is how fashion victims are born.

1. On my most recent trip to Naples (May 2011), the trash problem was much, much worse than on my previous trips a few years earlier. There are garbage pile-ups even in the decent parts of the city.

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This trash crisis amazes me. I was looking at staying in Naples one night, so I could visit Pompeii easily and see a bit of the city. Then I started reading reviews, here and elsewhere, on Naples. That will now be another night in Rome with a day trip to Pompeii without leaving the Naples train station. How is it that the problem can be so pronounced, yet the legislators are powerless?

If I might add, the fantasy of Neapolitan bespoke has been alive in English-speaking internet forums for at least a decade. The Japanese caught on even earlier.

So, earlier clients probably found themselves facing a much different tailoring environment. Even as recently as 2007, on my first trip to the city, the tailors I met were much more grounded, happy to get a new client, and flattered that one would travel from so far to see them. Now, many are fixated on the dream of international fame and would happily divert their resources to making mass-manufactured sub-Kiton clothing if given the commercial opportunity. Consequently, the bespoke product has been severely diluted and the commitment to client service rendered non-existent.

Some will retort that there are still many locally-oriented tailors in Naples who aren't like what I describe. Of course there are--but they are useless to me and most of us on this forum.

You're right...this phenomena pretty much never happens, so it is all the more startling in this particular case.

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I sense sarcasm, but it seems that they could figure out some plan to work around the mafia/whatever forces to place the trash other than in piles on streets. I understand that politicians don't get a whole hell of a lot done, but it isn't as if this is a dividing issue. Trash collection isn't exactly healthcare reform.

I was just surprised the garbage problem had gotten so much worse. I was incredulous when Manton reported trash pile-ups in the nice parts of the city on his trip last year (?), as I had only observed the problem in outer skirts of the city on my earlier trips. Now, there's garbage all over the place.

As I told Foo - every time I go to Naples or a Rubinacci garment is shipped to me I feel like one of those impotent American couples that goes to an Eastern Bloc country to adopt an orphan. Beauty escaping hopelessness...